264 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ November, 
manner, a clean linen cloth, or a piece of board, is put upon them, and kept pressed down by 
a heavy stone or iron weight. The beans and salt in the course of a day or two draw water, 
so that the whole becomes covered with brine. The jar or barrel should be kept in a cellar or 
cold pantry. When the Beans are wanted for the table, the surface layer, which generally 
gets a little mouldy after several months’ keeping, is wiped with a clean towel, and the beans 
soaked in cold water to remove the excess of salt, and they are finally cooked like fresh Kidney 
Beans. The only care necessary to be taken with the beans is to keep always a good weight 
iipon them in the barrel or jar in which they are preserved, so that always a little brine—say 
a quarter of an inch in depth, or more—stands upon them, to the total exclusion of the air. In 
this way Kidney Beans may be kept for more than a year. 
- ^HE Transplantation of Brachen is not always done with success. A 
correspondent of the Gardeners’ Chronicle recommends the following plan:—^‘Go 
wdth a horse and cart and a sharp spade into a thicket of Bracken ; cut out a 
cart-load in largo spadefuls, say a foot square and as much deep ; cart it to the place you wish 
it to grow in, empty it oiit, and spread it about as if the pieces were large clods of earth, 
turning any of the largest inverted pieces the right way up, and spreading the new material 
about 6 in. thick, without any particular care of root or stem, and next year you will have a 
crop of Bracken that will speedily become a thicket. Singular though it seems, this rough 
mode has been far more successful with me than the most careful digging up and replanting 
of the roots and stems.” 
— 0NE of the necessaries of decorative gardening is green Moss. Fresh Moss 
is not always easily obtainable, and even when it can be had, it has this objec¬ 
tion for in-door use, that it contains innumerable eggs of insects, and thus brings 
disagreeable visitors into the apartments. Prepared moss has generally a dull bluish-green 
colour, not at all pleasing. The following recipe for preparing Moss with slight alteration of 
appearance is copied from a French chemical journal:—Dissolve 1 grain of nitric acid, and 
about 15 grains of indigo, in 2 quarts of water ; tie the moss up in small parcels; throw these 
into the solution while boiling, and leave them in for a minute ; afterwards dry them in the 
open air, and the moss will last for an almost indefinite time without alteration. 
- French are specially fond of the Chrysanthemum frutescens., a large 
white-flowered greenhouse bush, which they call Anthemis. In the early summer, 
it is seen everywhere, in windows, in halls, in flower-beds, on restaurant-tables, 
and its similitude in almost every young lady’s bonnet. If it were not effective, it would not 
be permitted to grace the latter situation. At the Paris exhibition last spring were some 
gigantic plants, from 4 ft. to 5 ft, aci'oss, and trained dome fashion ; they were very handsome 
and novel, a trifle too regular, perhaps, but that would be thought no defect by some. 
- ®HE Messrs. Ottolander and Son send us Quercus nobilis., a seedling 
Oak, ‘‘ coming from Q. Rohur nigra, crossed with the Q. americana. The growth 
is much like that of Q. alba, but it is more robust, and very hardy, the leaves 
larger, and the young ones of a fine deep red.” It is certainly a very fine Oak, with large, 
coriaceous, glossy leaves, 9 in. long and 5 in. broad, wider towards the blunt apex, where they 
are slightly and bluntly sinuate-lobate. • 
-- ^HE Brussels Bouguetistes use the flowers of Smilacina bifolia as a 
substitute for those of Hoteia japonica. Judging from the quantities to be seen 
at the proper season in the flower-markets, this plant must be as plentiful wild 
near Brussels as it is rare in England. 
- regret to hear that, in consequence of bodily infirmities from 
which there is no hope of relief, Mr. G. Lightbody has been compelled to give 
up the cultivation of Tidips, and wishes to dispose of his stock. They are all 
fine sorts, so that here is a good opening for any one wishing to take up the Tulip fancy. 
The collection includes some fine seedlings. 
